The people who run our elections are exhausted and afraid.

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Our elections are secure, but our election officials are not.

Today, the Brennan Center released a new poll of local election officials

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. Twelve percent, roughly one in nine, have resigned since the 2020 election, and an additional eleven percent are likely to leave their jobs before the 2024 election.

Part of the Great Resignation? Not exactly. Election officials don’t seem to be seeking out remote work opportunities or fleeing to the exurbs. They’re more worried about their safety and the safety of their families. According to the poll results, nearly one in three officials has been harassed, abused, or threatened. One in five is worried about being physically assaulted on the job. And 45 percent expressed concern for the safety of other election officials and workers. None of them signed up for this.

Here, perhaps more than in any other area of governance, we see two diseases of American politics converging: disinformation and guns.

Republicans have long made baseless claims of voter fraud. Republican-controlled legislatures have worked to close polls earlier, reduce the number of polling locations, purge voter rolls, erect obstacles to individual voters — all part of an effort to shade the vote in their favor, executed under the pretext of election security. Those little lies have been a feature of the political landscape for decades.

Donald Trump unleashed something new, and far scarier. The Big Lie wasn’t a hypothetical about the possibility of voter fraud — it was a verifiably false allegation that an election was deliberately stolen. Unlike Republicans’ previous vague warnings about potential voter fraud, the Big Lie named names. It cast election officials as masterminds in a made-up crime against the state.

Trump’s lie was always paired with the threat of violence. “Fight like hell,” he told his followers minutes before sending them to the Capitol on January 6. It was far from the first time that Trump had raised the possibility of political violence. Of Hillary Clinton, he once casually remarked, “If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people — maybe there is, I don’t know.”

It should surprise no one, including Trump himself, that some of his supporters have taken his election lies as an explicit call to violence against the people who administer our elections.

The wave of threats won’t magically disappear. What Trump set loose, many subsidiary politicians have rushed in to exploit. The Marjorie Taylor Greenes of American politics will stick around as long as there is a political fringe to support them. The lies have trickled down, too, with previously “establishment-friendly” lawmakers such as Sen. Lindsey Graham becoming more aggressive and apocalyptic in their lies about voter fraud.

While the lies and threats are here for the immediate future, there is something we can do to protect our elections and the people who make them happen. We can take their security seriously.

Three-quarters of local election officials say they need more money to address security and election administration needs over the next five years. Some have requested bullet-resistant glass and transaction windows. And they need money to replace outdated voting machines and other polling place equipment, as well as to upgrade cybersecurity. Congress has provided only a fraction of the money required to secure our elections and election officials.

I talked to Natalie Tennant, who administered West Virginia’s elections as secretary of state for eight years and now serves as the Brennan Center’s manager of state advocacy in the Democracy Program. “Something has got to give,” she said. “The pressure on election officials must be relieved if we are realistically going to be ready for 2024. We now know what some of the solutions are and it’s time to implement them, whether it’s more funding, tighter security measures, or laws that protect workers. We can’t support our democracy on a hope and a prayer.”

A Dystopian ‘Pay-to-Stay’ Incarceration System

As the number of incarcerated people has soared, government agencies have struggled to pay for the associated costs. As a result, those behind bars have been forced to foot the bill for their own imprisonment. Fees for room and board, medical care, phone calls, and commissary items quickly add up, leaving many incarcerated people and their families in debt. “If we really care about ensuring that those who emerge from the maze of the nation’s criminal legal system are best poised to rejoin their communities, we will eradicate as many of these fees as we can,” Lauren-Brooke Eisen writes. Read more

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Using ‘Green Amendments’ to Protect the Environment in Court

In June, a historic civil trial brought by 16 young Montanans over damage from climate change will test the meaning of the Montana Constitution’s right to a “clean and healthful environment.” It’s the first such trial under a state constitution, and it likely won’t be the last. Activists nationwide are working to increase the number of states that protect the environment through “Green Amendments” like Montana’s. Writing for State Court Report, law professor Martha Davis describes how state constitutions can be powerful tools for fighting the climate crisis in court. READ MORE

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Strengthening NYPD Oversight

Ten years after the creation of the New York City Police Department inspector general, the office is struggling to effectively oversee policing practices amid challenges including leadership and staffing issues, police stonewalling, and reduced independence. A new Brennan Center resource outlines reforms to boost the inspector general’s transparency, resources, and access to information. “The NYPD IG must be revitalized so it can once again perform its critical function of ensuring that the nation’s largest police force does not go unchecked,” Ivey Dyson and Faiza Patel write. Read more

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Challenging California’s ‘Three-Strikes’ Law

California’s supreme court will hear oral arguments in a major case on the limits of prosecutorial discretion. After the reform-minded Los Angeles district attorney declined to enforce a state law requiring prosecutors to seek harsher sentences for people with two prior felony convictions, opponents argued that he had overstepped the bounds of his authority. Public Rights Project legal fellow Jacob Seidman writes in State Court Report that the ruling in this case “could be significant not only for the criminal justice system in Los Angeles but for elected district attorneys around the country who are pursuing criminal justice reforms.” READ MORE

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Coming Up

VIRTUAL EVENT — Making Congress Work in a Divided Nation

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TOMORROW: Wednesday, April 26, 1–2 p.m. ET



What can we learn about bipartisan collaboration from the committee system? What practical changes would make Congress more representative of the country as a whole? The Brennan Center is pleased to announce the premiere of a previously recorded conversation about making Congress more effective, featuring former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), political correspondent Daniel Strauss, and Maya Kornberg, Brennan Center Elections and Government Program research fellow and author of Inside Congressional Committees: Function and Dysfunction in the Legislative Process

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, moderated by Precision Strategies partner Mike Spahn. This premiere will include a live text chat Q&A with Kornberg. RSVP today

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Want to keep up with Brennan Center Live events? Subscribe to the events newsletter.

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News

Lawrence Norden on building resilience against misinformation ahead of the 2024 election // NEW YORK TIMES

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Daniel Weiner on the possible motives behind George Santos’s reelection bid // GOTHAMIST

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Thomas Wolf on proposed changes to the census form’s race and ethnicity questions // CNN

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Feedback on this newsletter? Email us at [email protected]







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